


Side Effects May Include...

by To_Shiki



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Caffeine Addiction, Caffeine Withdrawal, M/M, Old work, Poor Tony, like 10 years old old
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 07:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17596643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/To_Shiki/pseuds/To_Shiki
Summary: Steve has noticed how bad Tony's addiction is.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Livejournal misses me, it seems. They sent me an email saying 'let's look back on what you posted 10 years ago!' Not only was it me ranting about the joys of working Christmas weekend at Target, but also a fic I posted. That I didn't even remember. Now I'm going through and uploading them all here.

Steve watched as Tony literally bounced from one side of his lab to another. He would barely touch something before moving to something else, muttering to himself and blinking rapidly. Last Steve could recall it had been at least three and a half days since the other man had graced their bed with his presence. The cot over in the far corner of the lab, while the blanket was rumpled and pillow on the floor, there was no indent where a body would have laid. Conclusion: Tony hasn't slept.   
  
"Tony?"   
  
The shorter man didn't seem to hear him. A mug of coffee was grabbed and nearly inhaled as he missed his mouth. But he didn't miss a beat. Tony merely lowered the mug to the correct level, swallowed two huge gulps of cold coffee and used the bottom of his shirt to wipe excess liquid off his van dyke and nose.   
  
Steve could count the ribs sticking out from where the shirt revealed flesh. Brows furrowed together in concern and agitation. Clearly the genius of the two has forgotten to eat. Again.   
  
"Tony."   
  
Ignored again. This time, Stark stood near the wall where his suit was hanging from its chains. Grease smudged fingers trailed over the metal a hair's breath away. He stood there faintly swaying from side to side as he stared at the gleaming red and gold. Steve could barely make out the glow from the arc reactor shining through the thin white tank to reflect off the suit. He glanced at the few clutter-free spots on tables and counted the number of rings left by the coffee mug.   
  
There were about 10 rings too many. And was that one of those tiny espresso cups?   
  
"Tony!"   
  
This time, instead of just calling out his name, Steve strode over to the other man and grabbed his shoulder. He could feel the muscles trembling underneath warmer than normal skin. He gently tugged and guided Tony into turning around to face him. Now that he was so close he could see how bad off Tony really was.   
  
Normally a thin layer of makeup could hide the dark shadows hanging out under his eyes. With so little sleep there was no way that was going to happen. They were so dark that people would wonder if he'd been hit in the face with one of his contraptions on accident. His eyes were dilated more than they should have been in the low lighting and he stared at Steve without seeming to really see him. His cheeks were flushed with a trickle of sweat running down the side of his face. The lab and amount of his moving wasn't enough for him to have worked up a sweat at all.   
  
"Tony." Steve placed his hand on Tony's chin and lifted, waiting until glazed eyes attempted to focus on his. "We need to go upstairs. You need to eat something and sleep." He ran his hand through the short black hair and frowned. Fingers curled to massage Tony's scalp. "And a shower. Definitely adding a shower to that list."   
  
"Hmmm," Tony hummed in either agreement or acknowledgement, it was hard to tell. He lifted the mug back to his lips, still staring at Steve. A puzzled expression crossed his face when nothing met his lips. He stared down at his hand trying to figure out why it was empty. The clunking of ceramic hitting the table next to him barely registered. He let Steve wrap an arm around his shoulders and steer him towards the stairs.   
  
Maybe he was taking him to more caffeine?   
  
Things blurred after he stumbled up the first step. He blinked hard and found himself staring down at a bowl of something mushy and steaming. Without even thinking about it he inhaled the rising steam and raised a spoon full of whatever it was to his lips. A deep voice whispered encouragingly into his ear, a hand rubbing soothing circles on his back.   
  
Three full blinks later found him standing in the shower, head resting on a broad chest while large hands caressed his body with a soft cloth. He sighed and closed his eyes enjoying the sensation of someone else in control of his actions. A hand found the strength to reach up and curl the fingers around flesh where the arm bent. The chest underneath his ear rumbled with suppressed laughter.   
  
"Still with me?"   
  
"Mmhmm." Tony parted his lips enough to lay a kiss upon Steve's chest. After a moment's thought, he licked the spot, using the water running down to moisten his dry mouth. He repeated the action lazily while Steve washed the cold sweat and grease off his body.   
  
A long blink later found him laying on his side on his king sized bed, black silk sheets wrapped around his waist. One strong arm was under his head acting as a pillow while the other was wrapped snugly around his torso, fingers trailing patterns over and around the arc reactor. The body that those arms belonged to was pressed up against his back from shoulders to knees. The warmth radiating from Steve's body was enough to lull him into sleep.   
  
Unknown to poor Tony, Steve had read up on the dangers of caffeine consumption. He had talked to people, doctors and even visited a University nearby and questioned students. Poor, poor Tony had no idea the evil plot brewing within Captain America's mind... 


	2. To Wean

To wean: to withdraw (a person, the affections, one's dependency, etc.) from some object, habit, form of enjoyment, or the like  
~www.dictionary.com

  
Steve had it all planned out.  The amount of caffeine that Tony consumed within a 24 hour period was way too much.  Obviously.  Yes, he may have developed a very high tolerance but that in itself was not healthy.  He would have to gradually wean him off of the substance.  Maybe even encourage him with rewards of sorts.  Not the best idea:  trading one thing for something else.  For now, it was all he had to go on.

  
Step 1  
The very first step was to get the others into this as well.  Pepper and Rhodey were thrilled at the idea and very skeptical at the same time.  Both of them, along with some assistance from both Jarvis's, had attempted this very thing several times before.

All had failed spectacularly.

But Steve had some new ideas.  Some things that they hadn't thought to try, despite how obvious they should have been.

Pepper was in charge of testing out different types of coffees without caffeine.  She would take him his daily pick me up with slightly less amounts of caffeine and see if he noticed at all.

In the beginning he did.

One red eyebrow raised in disdained approval of how far her boss was able to spit the coffee.  It nearly reached the other side of the office.  Her eyes glared at the cup held in Tony's hand.  "Something wrong, Mr. Stark?"

If he didn't know any better, he'd say that she was plotting something.  Again.

"Yeah, there's something wrong, Pepper.  This tastes like shit."  He glared down into the murky brown that dared to call itself authentic coffee.  The cup was handed back to her, almost forceful enough to splash some over the edge.  Thankfully she had excepted that and moved her hand accordingly.  "What is that crap?"

"Shit, apparently."  She handed him a pile of papers.  "Sign where I've highlighted and I'll get you something else.  The normal crap you drink was out when I got this."

This routine was repeated daily, every morning at 9:05 A.M., for close to two weeks before a brand of caffeine-free coffee was discovered.  Kopi Luwak was it's name and was an astounding $160 a pound for the decaffeinated version.  Granted what Tony normally...inhaled...was expensive as well, it wasn't that bad.

Not only did it pass the test but just the idea of telling him what it was made her giggle just a little on the inside.  She made sure that at least the cameras in his offices and work areas were functional so that she wouldn't miss the look on his face when he looked it up.

The only fall back to the testing of coffees meant that he would drink more of the boring name brand coffee that the other office workers survived on.  It didn't have that much more caffeine in them than the usual, for which all were thankful of.  If there had been more then all this would have been in vain.

All the while, Tony was oblivious to the subtle change.  It was Rhodey's job to make sure of that.  He was charged with occupying Tony's attention when he wasn't working in the office or lab or there were no emergencies that required his attention.

This was no easy matter.

Considering the fact that tony used caffeine to stay awake to work required Rhodey to get creative in ways of keeping him moving.  It tended to make he remember watching parents trying to keep their young entertained enough to wear them down.  As soon as he saw Tony attempt to reach for a cup of coffee he would ask him a question or drag him out of wherever they were to some place that kept him from his caffeine.

Both the Jarvis in the Avengers mansion and the one running Tony's home in Malibu were under strict instructions from Steve to quickly destroy all remaining traces of the legal drug while Rhodey distracted Tony.  Several Avengers groaned and pleaded with Jarvis to just hide the 'real' coffee but he merely turned up his nose and replied, "It wouldn't work.  I've tried it before.  Master Tony can somehow locate it with both eyes closed and mostly asleep on his feet."

AI Jarvis had a bit harder time removing the substance.  That's where Steve stepped in.  He was able to replace it all with the Kopi Luwak while Tony was away.  This meant opening all the containers or bags that housed the horrendous chemical, swap it with the Kopi Luwak and follow Jarvis's instructions on how to reseal it so that it appeared undisturbed.

Now granted that while Tony was away on business there was no way that any of them could possibly monitor his caffeine intake.  None of them were too worried about it since they had gradually decreased the amount he was taking in while in their presence.

As the days passed they noticed the side effects taking place as his body slowly but surely began purging the drug from his system.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if this will be continued or not...


End file.
